4 ms·

Your strawman argument is invalid to what I said. I spend an inordinate amount of time researching each candidates views and each propositions pros and cons. Be

Your strawman argument is invalid to what I said. I spend an inordinate amount of time researching each candidates views and each propositions pros and cons. Before election day I usually set aside a day or two to deep dive into every choice I make. I take voting very seriously as people have died to give me the luxury to vote. These actions all occur outside of the office where they belong. That being said leave politics out of the office.

toiletfuneral 6y ago
Thank god IBM had employees like you during the 1930's, otherwise they might not have made as much money.
derkster 6y ago
Absolutely. And I better not hear anything about unionizing either, with all their liberal communist ideology! They're lucky I let them have jobs. /s
claudeganon 6y ago
Lots of people also died to make sure that we have the right to organize our workplaces, a right that’s just as much enshrined in law as voting: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_worker_deaths_in_United_States_labor_disputes https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_worker_deaths_in_Uni... Their sacrifice wasn’t any less important or necessary to the expansion of the democracy in the United States. In fact, it was this “bringing politics to the work” that provided the means for workers having real representation for them in government in the first place.
md_ 6y ago
This may sound like a troll, but how do we delineate what politics belong in the office and what do not? As I noted elsewhere in this thread, I think it's more ambiguous these days, not less. As a few concrete examples: * Say I refuse to buy Chinese-made goods because I oppose the treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. What do I do if my employer considers doing business in China? Should I not mention this, because it's "political"? * What if it's 1933, and my employer is IBM, and the customer is Nazi Germany? * Say I oppose H1B visas because they take jobs away from American citizens, and my employer considers expanding the H1B workforce. Should I speak out against it, or hold my tongue because my motives are "political"? * Say I believe in equal rights for gay couples, and my employer is considering expanding health coverage to same-sex partners. Should I speak out in favor of it? In each of these examples, it seems to me there's a spectrum of options, ranging from: A. No constraints on in-office behavior; I speak out about anything. B. In the office, I am purely a shareholder-profit-maximizing robot. I don't think either of those extremes is very satisfying—I expect many of us would say it is noble to oppose selling adding machines to Nazi Germany, but that we'd have many more questions when it comes to some of the other examples. Unfortunately, I think that means that there's no simple answer here. "No politics in the workplace" can result in ghastly, amoral outcomes (selling adding machines to the Nazis). But "every culture war, all the time" is a great way to be a dick. I think my personal code here is, "try not to be a dick." Past that point, I don't think there are easy answers.
uoaei 6y ago
Voting is literally an infinitesimal part of politics. Voting is an instantaneous act, and then it's done. That is not politics. All labor is "activism" performed in service of a specific outcome, because every action is inherently ideological. Only tools are morally neutral -- not the actions performed with them. What you spend your time doing, introduces an influence that drives nature and society in one direction over another. If you make tools for microlending, you are contributing to the economic activity of disconnected portions of the world population. If you make tools for surveilling undocumented immigrants, you are contributing to the apparatus which continues to strip and violate the human rights of large groups of people. Different degrees of separation warrant different levels of attribution. But no one is completely inculpable.
dtoma 6y ago
> "an inordinate amount of time researching [...] I usually set aside a day or two" English isn't my native language but doesn't this make it sound like you only spend "a day or two" researching? Or are these two sentences unrelated? > Bringing politics to the office(thanks Google!) How bad is it really? Have you ever been told something like "I won't review your PR because you don't vote for the same person I do"?

toiletfuneral 6y ago

Thank god IBM had employees like you during the 1930's, otherwise they might not have made as much money.

derkster 6y ago

Absolutely. And I better not hear anything about unionizing either, with all their liberal communist ideology! They're lucky I let them have jobs. /s

claudeganon 6y ago

Lots of people also died to make sure that we have the right to organize our workplaces, a right that’s just as much enshrined in law as voting: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_worker_deaths_in_United_States_labor_disputes https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_worker_deaths_in_Uni... Their sacrifice wasn’t any less important or necessary to the expansion of the democracy in the United States. In fact, it was this “bringing politics to the work” that provided the means for workers having real representation for them in government in the first place.

md_ 6y ago

This may sound like a troll, but how do we delineate what politics belong in the office and what do not? As I noted elsewhere in this thread, I think it's more ambiguous these days, not less. As a few concrete examples: * Say I refuse to buy Chinese-made goods because I oppose the treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. What do I do if my employer considers doing business in China? Should I not mention this, because it's "political"? * What if it's 1933, and my employer is IBM, and the customer is Nazi Germany? * Say I oppose H1B visas because they take jobs away from American citizens, and my employer considers expanding the H1B workforce. Should I speak out against it, or hold my tongue because my motives are "political"? * Say I believe in equal rights for gay couples, and my employer is considering expanding health coverage to same-sex partners. Should I speak out in favor of it? In each of these examples, it seems to me there's a spectrum of options, ranging from: A. No constraints on in-office behavior; I speak out about anything. B. In the office, I am purely a shareholder-profit-maximizing robot. I don't think either of those extremes is very satisfying—I expect many of us would say it is noble to oppose selling adding machines to Nazi Germany, but that we'd have many more questions when it comes to some of the other examples. Unfortunately, I think that means that there's no simple answer here. "No politics in the workplace" can result in ghastly, amoral outcomes (selling adding machines to the Nazis). But "every culture war, all the time" is a great way to be a dick. I think my personal code here is, "try not to be a dick." Past that point, I don't think there are easy answers.

uoaei 6y ago

Voting is literally an infinitesimal part of politics. Voting is an instantaneous act, and then it's done. That is not politics. All labor is "activism" performed in service of a specific outcome, because every action is inherently ideological. Only tools are morally neutral -- not the actions performed with them. What you spend your time doing, introduces an influence that drives nature and society in one direction over another. If you make tools for microlending, you are contributing to the economic activity of disconnected portions of the world population. If you make tools for surveilling undocumented immigrants, you are contributing to the apparatus which continues to strip and violate the human rights of large groups of people. Different degrees of separation warrant different levels of attribution. But no one is completely inculpable.

dtoma 6y ago

> "an inordinate amount of time researching [...] I usually set aside a day or two" English isn't my native language but doesn't this make it sound like you only spend "a day or two" researching? Or are these two sentences unrelated? > Bringing politics to the office(thanks Google!) How bad is it really? Have you ever been told something like "I won't review your PR because you don't vote for the same person I do"?